From Matthew 6:25-34 / Anti-Anxiety Medicine – Some medical conditions are chronic, ongoing. And due to the way sin has impacted our souls, we possess chronic soul maladies as well. And among the most destructive of these, is the scourge of anxiety.

It is true that because we are a soul/body nexus, sometimes feelings of anxiety can be brought on by medications, too much caffeine and a host of other dietary or organic disorders. But then there is the anxiety Christ is addressing in this passage; the nasty trait of not keeping sweeping, controlling spiritual truths as static realities in the mind. A kind of spiritual forgetfulness of the reality of how much God loves His blood-bought sons and daughters. How He truly and constantly cares and provides for them, and want them to live free from certain worries so that they might give themselves over to the contemplation and pursuit of higher, richer, soul nourishing matters.

Jesus’ point here is, that such is God’s care for all of His creatures, that He provides for humblest, frailest and most temporary of all. And how much more then for those who are His by faith. How much more attention He pays to their needs, so that they might give their care to things of higher concern – even the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. All ending with the promise that if you give yourself to this, you need not fret over the other.

I don’t know about you, but I need a daily dose of the medication of this passage each day. Multiple times a day. To force my own mind to reckon with Jesus’ words here. To consciously reject intruding thoughts of concern over life’s basics, if at the same time I give myself over to the seeking of His Lordship in my heart and mind, and dwelling on the righteousness of Christ imputed to me by faith, so that I might also live it out by the power of the Spirit. To take myself in hand at times, and look to the cross, fixing on it as the place where His love for me is so wondrously and incomprehensibly displayed – that if He would do this to secure my soul, then what won’t He do to bring me safely home, and meet my every need along the way?

O me of little faith.

Father forgive me.

Holy Spirit, ever remind me.